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Mexican pop-rock singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade has been a successful artist in her native country since her 2003 self-titled debut spawned her biggest hit, “En el 2000.”

But success in the United States had so-far eluded the 32-year-old born Maria Natalia Lafourcade Silva. Until now.

Her latest album “Hasta la Raíz,” and its subsequent win at this year’s Grammy Awards for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album, Lafourcade is finally making a name for herself north of the border.

“I felt very happy, of course. I wasn’t expecting I was going to win,” Lafourcade, who also has won several Latin Grammy Awards, said in a phone interview from a tour stop in Phoenix. “I felt so thankful for all the things that have happened with this album and that we could get the chance to share the music with people from the U.S.

“The fact that (I won) is making it easier for us now, it’s opening many doors, even with people that might not speak Spanish. It shows how music is a universal language.”

For Lafourcade, the album’s breakthrough is only part of what makes her sixth album so special.

“I was trying to be very real and honest (on “Hasta la Raíz”) and not put a mask on me,” Lafourcade said. “Every album is special … but 'Hasta la Raíz' pushed me to make personal music, to make this journal inside my heart and inside my feelings … . This time it was about telling my own stories and things I wanted to tell on stage. There was a moment when the album took its own (path). I felt like I was working for the music, like the album was telling me what to do. It wasn’t really me.”

Lafourcade is excited to return to the El Paso area, not only because she has performed here before, but because much of her spiritual journey toward creating the album took place at Tornillo’s Sonic Ranch Studio.

“We were disconnected from the city and the stress that I hate,” Lafourcade said. “I was running every day through those wonderful trees (the studio is located on a pecan farm) that they have at the ranch. It’s an amazing place. I was surrounded by good people; it felt like a big family hanging out making music.”

With the success of the album, Lafourcade said she has been asked often whether she would like to make an English-language crossover any time soon.

“Before, I was listening to a lot of English music, even if I didn’t understand. But then I started listening to many composers and singer-songwriters from Latin America and I reconnected to Latin music. That was the key to me to reconnect to my own music – to find my own roots. That’s why I named the album ‘Hasta la Raiz,’ I wanted to connect with my roots,” Lafourcade said. "It’s not that I wouldn’t (make an English album); I’ve written in English. But, I put that idea away.”

Dave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @AcostaDavidA on Twitter.

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